Thursday, December 6, 2012

To me, it always required certain accumulation of knowledge on art to approach Godard cinema which is made up of movies that cannot be seen and understood as a duck takes to water, but movies that required me to read a lot after watching them, to explore what I have missed. Not so far-back, just four years ago, I made the decision to pursue a master degree in the city of Lyon, a decision which was well affected by my love of cinema. Lyon was the city where 'cinema' was pioneered by the invention of the device called Cinématographe (see the Lumière brothers). There I got embarked upon the filmography of Jean-Luc Godard with the first DVD I borrowed from the Lyon Municipal Library: À bout de souffle. At the end of my courses, in the evenings, while I was living and breathing Godard starting from his first short films to his feature-length films, Pierrot Le Fou wouldn't portray me any better at those times. For I always postpone to consume things that I fall for, I didn't even notice that a four-year passed since I last watched a Godard movie. Having recently seen Le Mépris (Contempt) (1963), I wanted to have some notes on a Godard film on this blog.

Le Mépris is a movie within a movie and the first big-budget film of Godard who had been making his movies far-off from commercial concerns. The movie is an adaptation of the book named Il Disprezzo (Contempt) of Alberto Moravia's. The dilemma of "the art or the money?" is being told through the dissolution of the marriage of the screenwriter Javal Paul (Michel Piccoli) who is in the eve of accepting a project that will bring a lot of money and keep his beautiful wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) happy. Paul is hired by the American producer Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance), to write the screenplay of the film adapted from Homer's Odyssey and will be directed by Fritz Lang (playing himself in the movie). Prokosch takes an aversion to the artistic approach of Lang's to the film, and desires the film to be away from those elements and close to his views.

Apparently, it was easy for Fritz Lang to accept the invitation to take a part in Godard's film since he admired Godard cinema. Lang plays himself in the film, a director that does not make concessions in his art. Godard, through Lang, puts across the degeneration in the movie making art, as well as the intellectual narration that received a blow to make money and yielded its place to the shallow narrative. Godard, in a way, criticizes Hollywood cinema here.

While Paul is content of the job that he accepted to please his wife by earning more money, he is also in a dilemma, for he put aside his art. As Lang hints at the cruel world ruled by the money, he becomes more and more irresolute about the project. On the other hand, Camille begins to have contempt towards him and she cannot explain the reason. Perhaps, the way that Paul ignored Prokosch's interest to his wife has an effect on her feelings. Camille can not explain this, and says to Paul: "I despise you for being unable to say no. I find you meek!"

Le Mépris is a film where Godard's frankly expressed his artistic concerns in parallel to the story of a failing marriage. While Paul is faced with the risk to sell and disregard his art, the situation between him and his wife is not so different than between him and his art. Is it Paul to be despised, or is he the one to be understood?

Le Mépris is shot with a wide-angle camera, full with camera movements, inebriates the one with a visual feast of colors. Lasting up to half an hour in the middle of the film, the apartment scene where the couple's positions relative to the items in the room (status, columns, et.) are thought ingeniously in such a way that Godard doesn't only calls upon the dialogs for the narration, but also strengthens it with visual elements. He symbolizes the couple's breaking relationship with the objects that intervene between them.

Godard is a filmmaker who loves metaphors. During a long scene where Lang and Paul are talking about the scenario of Odyssey, Paul relates Penelope with Camille and tries tries to understand the story through his wife. Odyssey is used as a metaphor to contribute to the narrative. Since I didn't read the book (Il Disprezzo), I am not sure if it is Godard or Alberto Moravia that fictionalized this, but it is known that Godard likes these kind of connotations, relating art with another form of idea/art. Maybe that's why, when the film production company requested to put forward Bardot's naked body in the film, Godard didn't refuse, but agreed, since it will contribute to the story. For the audience that watches the film to see Bardot's naked body, it will connotate that Godard was torn between the producers' demands to sell the movie and making his own art.